Creator (book 3) - H.S

Chapter 7: All I Wanted.

HARRY'S POV:

The police show up to my house, and they hurry in, three men here surrounding all of us. They ask us what happened, and the basics of the day that we've all had. Jeffrey, and both of our mums are sitting on the couch with me right now as they circle around us with questions. I pass over the ransom note to the investigator, my hands shaking as I do. They read over it, putting it in a plastic bag to investigate. I lead them outside, showing them where I found the dog, and the police start looking around while the investigator comes back to us.
"When was the last time you spoke to Ms. Montgomery?" He asks, a pad in his hand to write with.
"This morning... I've told you this before. She was lying in our bed, and she woke up when I did. I told her I had a meeting and I left the house then. When I came back she was gone." I tell the investigator again, feeling like I've said this before.
"And you said she was pregnant?" He asks, and I nod once more.
"Around six months, yes." I tell him again, crossing my arms over my chest, Jeffrey coming up beside me as we stand outside.
"And the two of you... Your relationship status is?" He asks, and his voice is suggestive, and rather pointed.
"She's my girlfriend... Why does this matter? She's missing, we need to do something about this." I urge my voice, and the investigator continues on.
"Pregnant girlfriend of a star.. Not a wife, and where were you today?" He asks, and my blood begins to boil, he's not going to acuse me of doing harm to her, she is the light of my fucking life, I wouldn't harm a single hair on her fucking head.
"He was with me, and I have proof of that. Girlfriend, wife, fiance, doesn't matter, he loves her and he'd never hurt her. Instead of pointing your questions to my client here I would figure out where the hell she is. He did nothing to her, and he never would." Jeffrey steps in front of me, and the investigator looks up to him.
"I'm just doing my job sir, not trying to accuse anyone of anything, just looking at all the possibilities... Let's go inside, I'll need your proof of alibi in there, and we will discuss how we'll go about this in there." The investigator speaks, and I leave with a huff, walking back into the home that feels so odd without her in it. I move to the couch, and notice my mum comforting Suzie as they sit. I know this must be hard but my emotions haven't taken over like hers have. I know that the first twenty four hours are the most important in this type of situation so all I want to do is stay focused, and not lose hope in this.
"Did they find anything else?" My mum leans over to ask, and I shake my head no, trying to keep my anger held within.
"So the ransom note says transfer one million on bitcoin which equals to be about seven million dollars sir... They simply took her because they knew that would get to you the quickest considering the state she's in, and how much you care about her." He starts, speaking quickly, and going over the basics.
"I don't care if it's a million dollars or every penny in my fucking bank account, they can have it all I don't understand why I can't just transfer it right now... I'll do it, I'll do it now." I tell them, pulling my phone out, and the man leans, putting his hand over my phone.
"I would advise against that." He tells me, and I look up to him.
"And why is that? She's pregnant, they could hurt her, or the babies... She can't be harmed, I need her back now." I plead with him. I can feel Jeffrey's hand on my back, and my mum places her hand on my leg, also giving support.
"The truth of the matter is the fact that she's been gone for hours now. They could have already hurt her or worse by now. If that's the case then they would be taking your money and you'd never get anything in return for it. She could be alive still, and you could send over the money, giving it to the captors, and what's to stop them from killing her anyways after they get it? Or asking for more money, and continuing to ask for more? We've seen cases like this before, and the best step would be trying to find the captors, or get in contact, making sure they have obvious proof that she's still alive, and safe..." The investigator tells me, and it feels like I've been punched in the stomach.
"I'm not negotiating with my pregnant girlfriends captors. If you say you need to search for her, then fucking search, don't just sit here with your fingers up your ass, and do something!" I shout, and my mom squeezes my leg.
"Harry, they're doing the best they can." Jeff speaks in a low voice, and I stand, throwing my hands up.
"It's not good enough! They could've already hurt her, or worse!" I yell, and turn my back to them.
"Our job is to bring her home safely to you... That's what we intend to do..." The man speaks softly behind me, and the door opens, the police coming back in. I turn to them, and they are empty handed but stand in the living room.
"Did you find anything?" I ask, and the officers look at each other silently. "Just tell me..." I mumble, and the officers look past me to the investigator.
"There was obvious foul play involved, can you identify something, let us know if it was hers?" They ask, and I nod, knowing I know every piece of her wardrobe down to what her socks look like. The pull out a small baggy, and I walk forward, looking at it. It's the necklace I bought her so many christmas' ago, the one that has Haley's name on it.
"It's hers... I got it for her." I mumble, for the first time feeling my heart shatter in my chest.
"There was no sign of trauma or blood. Just the necklace. It could have happened to fall from her, but there were scuff marks on the ground around the area, showing that there could have been foul play involved. We will let you know if any information comes, but we will take what we have today. I strongly instruct you to stay inside, and not leave, and that goes for everyone you have any type of close relationship with. No one is safe if they are targeting the ones you love..." One of the officers speaks to me, and I just sit down, my blank stare hitting my shoes as I run my hands through my hair.
"Thank you.." I mumble, and Jeffrey stands to show them out, but I can't move. I prepared myself for her to possibly lose the kids. I prepared myself to have to pick her up and take care of her. I prepared myself for the pain she'd go through if that happened. I prepared myself for the pain she'd go through having kids, but I didn't prepare myself to lose her. I didn't prepare myself to possibly never see her again because we moved past that. I knew she wasn't going to leave but this wasn't her leaving, this was someone trying to take the thing that meant the most to me to try and get what they needed. I am completely in my own head, not sure of the surroundings around me until there is a hand on my shoulder. I snap up, looking at Jeffrey as he looks down on me.
"They're gone...How are you feeling?" He asks, and I almost laugh at the question.
"I want to be alone." I mumble, pushing myself off of the chair, and moving away from the group in my living room.
"Harry, don't run away from this... You need to start calling people... Call the band, Helene, Kate... Anthony. You need to tell them what's going on and to warn them... Some of them might fly out to be with you during this because the truth of the matter is, we're all scared as hell right now, and we all need each other. You need us." He speaks with force but still keeps his tone down, and I don't turn back to him as I walk to the stairs.
"Well you can all need each other away from me. I'll be upstairs." I mumble, wanting nothing more than to see her when I walk into our bedroom, but knowing I won't. I don't know what I can do to fix this. I don't know the steps I need to take, but once I figure them out I'll leap, I'll jump, I'll fucking crawl I don't care.. I'll do it for her. I know she must be fucking terrified, and above all else, that's what hurts the most. The fear of her feeling pain. All I wanted was her... she is the only damn thing I wanted and right as I thought nothing else could hurt us.... my life was fucking taken right before my fucking eyes.

EL'S POV:

I try to open my eyes but everything is black. My heart is racing, and the last thing I remember is a hand over my mouth, and a struggle to move me, and then nothing. There wasn't much sound, there wasn't much I could see, just like right now. I realize it's because there's something around my eyes, I can see the light peering from underneath the blindfold, and I look around despite my lack of vision. I don't say anything, knowing that even if I did no one would give me a straight answer as to what the fuck is going on right now. My hands are tied behind my back, my legs tied in front of me, and I am completely immobile as I sit here, wherever I am, but my senses are heightened. I snap my head to the left, feeling a sharp pain in my temple as I do, hearing noise from that side.
"Calm down... Calm the fuck down!" The voice yells to me, and I panic more, feeling a cold object press to my cheek. I can smell the metal, the faint rusty scent in my nose, and I flinch away. "Move and you'll get hurt, and we don't want to do that darling. Keep yourself still, don't want to hurt that baby inside of you." The man has a sinister voice, a cold voice, and I feel my skin crawl.
"Why the fuck am I here?" I bark, knowing still that I won't get an exact answer, but knowing there's a chance I could die here.
"Because that sweet boyfriend of yours has money, and we want it. That's all we want and then you can go back home. If they don't send it quickly that's when we start playing dirty.... Like I said, we don't want to hurt you, but if it comes to that. If your boyfriend doesn't say anything, doesn't send over the cash then we do what we don't want to. If you get hurt, it's his fault not ours." He tells me, and I stay as still as possible, trying my best to keep my heart rate down. My thoughts are not on Harry, they're not even on me. They are on Garrison and Grace. They are on my children, my lifelines. I cannot panic, I cannot risk their lives, knowing that that would wreck me beyond recognition.
"You didn't have to do this to get the money... You didn't have to risk the life of my fucking children!" I bark my words out, trying to keep my voice down.
"But we did. You're going to be alright love, as long as that sweet boyfriend of yours sends that cash over.. That's all he has to do." They warn me. "So we need to get that picture of you now, send it their way, and let them know that your sweet little face is only a bit scratched ep... A little bit bruised, but just know. If you scream, we'll hurt you. If you try to escape we'll hurt you. If you try to run we'll hurt you. Do you understand?" There's another voice now, and I turn my head to the other side.
"Yea yea, do anything but sit here and you fucking kill me, got it. Fuck with me all you wat but do not fuck with my kids, please." I finally let out a small plead, not feeling scared in this moment but feeling angered at this move, it was a dumb fucking move.
"Alright princess, we're taking the blindfold off, we're going to take a picture of you, show those pretty teeth." He speaks, and the light blinds me, and I blink quickly. My eyes focus, but I only see men with masks, nothing recognizable or memorable about them as the two of them stand in front of me.
"You're going to get caught. You won't get away with this." I mumble, keeping my voice low, knowing I look like a mess right now.
"We won't. He's too far up your ass to care about who we are as long as he gets you back safe. So smile for the camera princess." He speaks, and holds his phone up. I see a small sticker on the back, it's a cross sticker, and it's green, but I don't change my face, looking to the camera, knowing how crushed he's going to feel when he sees this photo. Fuck I didn't even think about what he's going through right now, he must be devastated. What if he doesn't know I'm gone yet? What if he thinks I left him... He couldn't... Surely he's smarter than that. The man takes the photo, and then the two of them disappear from view, and within seconds I'm seeing black again, something put over my head, covering my view. Stay strong El. Think of the two lives inside of you, live for them, get through this for them... you can fucking do this. Harry will fix this. I thought I had all I wanted. That thought is almost laughable now...

—————————————————
Song: All I Wanted by Paramore.

Oops.